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Feast: The Divine Paradox: Joy Through Sacrifice!
#FT26-04A
Bill Onisick
Given 29-Sep-26; 33 minutes
2026-09-29
summary: The Feast of Tabernacles, known simply as "the Feast," was the most joyous celebration of the entire year for ancient Israel, following the harvest season after months of hard work. God commands rejoicing repeatedly in Leviticus 23, Deuteronomy 14, and Deuteronomy 16, where the instruction to rejoice appears three times, with a fourth emphatic declaration: "you shall surely rejoice." This rejoicing was never meant to be solitary but communal, shared among the entire community for all seven days. A divine paradox lies at the heart of the Feast: two Hebrew words repeated three times in Scripture, hagog (to keep a festival with giddy, dancing rejoicing) and hag (a solemn feast of sacrifice), appear side by side, revealing that rejoicing and sacrifice are inseparable. The Feast required more sacrifices than all other feasts combined, and these offerings were never merely about slaughtering animals but about complete devotion and surrender to God. Psalm 107 illustrates the proper response to God's goodness, calling His people to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare His works with rejoicing. Hebrews 13:15 connects this to continually offering the sacrifice of praise, giving thanks for the unmerited sacrifice of Jesus Christ. True, lasting joy is found only through complete surrender and self-sacrificial love. There is no rejoicing without sacrifice. David's account in I Chronicles 21 demonstrates two key attributes of acceptable sacrifice: it must begin with genuine humility and repentance, and it must cost the giver something real. David refused to offer what cost him nothing. Similarly, acceptable living sacrifices today require an underlying attitude of humility, repentance, and recognition of God's unmerited mercy, not self-reliance or selfish ambition. Paul's writings in Philippians reinforce that rejoicing in the Lord continues regardless o
transcript:
Well, this was a time of great joy for the children of Israel. The Lord had provided the early and latter rains, the harvest was gathered and the fruit of the vine. The wine press was tread. It had been a long and difficult year, filled with hard work under the sun. But the long awaited Feast of Tabernacles was here and it was indeed the most joyous celebration of the entire year. It was the highlight of the year, known simply as the feast. It did not need any adjective. Please turn to Leviticus 23. Yes, we've been here a few times. We're going to examine the divine paradox. Of the feast Rejoicing And sacrificing for 7 days tying into Ronnie's message. So here in Leviticus 23, we will start in verse 40. There we will pick up near the end here. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, 7 days. You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for 7 days in the year. It shall be a statue forever in your generations. So we are commanded to have a feast to the Lord. With 7 days of rejoicing. Over to Deuteronomy 14, where we will pick up the instruction on 2nd tithe. And yes, David was here too, but clearly God wanted some reinforcement here. We must be a, a forgetful people. Deuteronomy 14, we will just pick up one scripture, verse 26. And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires, you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. Over to Deuteronomy 16 now verses 14 and 15. And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the Fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates. 7 days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place where the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands. So you shall surely rejoice. This is a command that's repeated 3 times at the feast, you shall rejoice, and then a 4th time, you shall surely. Rejoice. Are we supposed to be rejoicing? Now God clarifies in Deuteronomy 16:14 that this command requires us to not do this alone. Ronnie hit on this, we are to be together all 7 days with the entire community, rejoicing and eating before God. Now, as Martin pointed out, rejoicing is a fruit of God's spirit. It is not some temporary emotion of happiness that's based off of external circumstances. Rejoicing requires a deliberate choice centered on God's faithfulness rather than self-centered merriment. In verse 17 now, let's read that one, Deuteronomy 16:17. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which he has given you. During these commanded 7 days of rejoicing, we are also commanded to be giving, according to the different blessings God has given to each of us. And here, we see the link between rejoicing and sacrificing. We can tie in Hebrews 13:16, we will not go there, but it reads for do not forget to do good and to share. For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. The feast is one giant potluck where everyone brought the fruit of their labor to share with others as they rejoiced and ate together before God. Let's go to the first Psalm in the last book of Psalms. I see some puzzled looks for everyone other than Richard, that's Psalm 107. I'm sure others knew that as well. Psalm 107. And here the psalmist outlines many blessings from God that we should be thankful for and rejoice over. First on the list, Psalm 107 verse 1. Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. And this is a song that we sing in verses 13 and 14, when Israel cried out in trouble, he saved them out of distress. He brought them out of darkness and death, and freed them from slavery. We see here a reference to when we repent from our sin. He actually frees us from the bondage of sin. Verses 37 and 38, we see a reference to the abundance of the harvest. They yield a fruitful harvest. It reads, he blesses them and they multiply greatly. OK, reading Psalm 107 verse 21 and 22 now. Psalm 107 21. All that men would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoicing. In the conclusion in verses 42 and 43, we see it's the righteous, see it and rejoice. What is it they see that makes them rejoice? The psalmist tells us they actually understand the loving kindness of the Lord. And we can tie that perfectly to Hebrews 13:15. Therefore, by him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. So we rejoice, that is, we offer our sacrifice of praise and thanks continually for the unmerited sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who opened the door for our relationship with us. With God. Back to Leviticus 23 now. Let's see the other side of this paradox. In the very command to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, we see two separate Hebrew words that demonstrate the linkage between rejoicing and sacrificing at the feast. In Leviticus 23:39, Leviticus 23:41, and in Numbers 29:12, we see two Hebrew words back to back, repeated three times, verbatim. It reads, you shall keep, first word, a feast, second word of the Lord for seven days. We see this repeated three times. And when we look underneath at these words, you shall keep is Psalms 2287 Hagog, meaning to march in a sacred procession to observe a festival. Get this one, to be giddy, to celebrate, to dance, we can clearly see rejoicing in this Hebrew word. Now the second word, a feast, is Strongs 22:82. Hag, meaning a festival, a solemn feast. Sacrifice So here, Hagog, keep a festival of rejoicing and hag, a solemn feast of sacrifice. We see this phrase again, by the way, in Zechariah 14. For in the millennium, the God's people will be attending the Feast of Tabernacle so that they too can learn how to rejoice and sacrifice. Reading Leviticus 23:36 now. Leviticus 23:36. For 7 days, you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. So we saw earlier, we were commanded 7 days of rejoicing, 7 days of sacrifices. But there is more as we know, in in Numbers 29, God actually specifies the required sacrifices. We are actually to offer more sacrifices at the feast than all the other feasts combined. These sacrifices were never about slaughtering an animal. They were about the voluntary and uncomplaining giving of a life and total devotion to God, which is a living sacrifice. The goal of the offerings is to produce unity with God, to be acceptable, to be a sweet smelling aroma to the Lord. The feast paradox of rejoicing and sacrifice is that is actually a spiritual truth. True, lasting joy is found only through complete surrender and self-sacrificial love. Simply put, There is no rejoicing. Without sacrifice. Jesus Christ's sacrifice creates and enables all rejoicing. We respond to God's sacrifice with our sacrifice of humble repentance. We joined a covenant of sacrifice with God. And then we do what Ronnie was talking about. We obey his law, and we work to overcome our stupid, stubborn carnal nature. God's plan to create us in His image through sacrifice predates creation. We see this in II Timothy 1:9. It reads, his own purpose and grace was given to us in Christ Jesus, before time began. Also, First Peter 1:18 through 20 adds, our redemption through the precious blood of Christ was. Fore ordained before the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ sacrifices how we are redeemed and following his example of daily living sacrifices is how we are transformed to become like God, God being sacrificed by their very nature, brethren. So we are commanded to offer more daily living sacrifices during these 7 days than any other time of the year. This ties perfectly into David's message yesterday. I wish he did not take all my scriptures. I'm just kidding. It was very good. Our focus here is not just on the future. Our focus is on being present, a present royal priesthood as we learn how to serve alongside our High priest. We read in I Peter 2:5, we are a holy priesthood, offering up spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ. And in Romans 12, by the mercies of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Here at the feast, we are to have more daily living burn offerings and complete devotion and service to God than any other time of year. How are we spending our time here at the feast? This must come first, right? Our burnt offerings must come first. This is the first great commandment, as Ronnie mentioned, to love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. God must always be the focus at the Feast of Tabernacles. But to be acceptable, those burnt offerings had to have right on top of them, a meal or grain offering. And here at the feast, we are also to have more daily living grain offerings aligned to that second great commandment to love others through self-sacrifice and service. Remember, these offerings were literally consumed. Burn up, providing a sweet aroma to the Lord. All right, turn with me to I Corinthians I'm sorry, I Chronicles 21. So nobody took this one. Here in I Chronicles 21, verses 8 to 18, I'm just going to summarize here. So, David acknowledges his sin of numbering the people for his own purpose. Grab on to that, for his own purpose. After 70,000 men fall to the plague, David comes before God begging for his mercy and asking God to punish him. He was the one that sinned, not the people. The angel of the Lord relays to David, go erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan. Now, we see here the first condition of an acceptable sacrifice, which always starts. With the right underlying humility, an attitude of humility, repentance, and recognition for God's unmerited mercy as we too just like David often seek our own will. We seek our own achievements, we look for our own solutions through our own self-reliance and selfish ambition. And we do it all the time, brethren. We could tie this to Psalm 51. Uh, Mark was here earlier, just a few days ago. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart is what he wants from each of us first and foremost. So David goes and asks Ornan now to sell him the threshing floor, so that he can build an altar to the Lord. Ornan responds, Hey, I'll give it to you. Take the oxen, the wheat for the burnt offering, the grain offerings. I'll even give you all the, the, the wood. I'll give you the yolks of the oxen, you can use that to fuel the fire. And now we are going to pick up verses 24 and 26. 1st Chronicles 21:24. Then King David said to Oran, No, but I will surely buy it for the full price. For I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burn offerings with that which costs me nothing. So David Gaborn in 600 shekels of gold by weight for the place. OK, we see another important attribute of an acceptable sacrifice. Acceptable sacrifice, this has always come at a cost to the giver. In the parallel account in II Samuel 24, we see David pays just 50 shekels of silver for the threshing floor, oxen and wood, but here he's paying 600 shekels of gold for the entire hillside surrounding that threshing floor. This is Mount Moriah, a large enough area, by the way, for the future temple that Solomon would build. You could jot down II Chronicles 3:1. That makes that very clear. This was also, by the way, the same place where Abraham offered Isaac. You see that in Genesis 22:2. Now, in verse 26, 1 Chronicle 21:26, and David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the Lord. And he answered him from fire, from heaven by fire on the altar of burnt offering. So God displays His mercy. And his grace with a consuming fire from heaven, heaven demonstrating his acceptance of David's humble repentance and his offerings. You know, Ronnie mentioned the sacrifice of Abel and Cain, and there is a really good chance, by the way, the way that God showed that, that Abel's sacrifice was acceptable is he sent fire down from heaven to completely consume it. Our feast is set apart, brethren, as the highlight of the year requiring more sacrificial love, more living sacrifices than all the other feasts combined. Are we bringing acceptable burnt and grain offerings with that right underlying attitude of humility? Repentance, recognition for God's unmerited mercy. We know Jesus personified the intent of these sacrifices as a living sacrifice and devotion to God. And ultimately, His life was consumed as an acceptable sacrifice. The greatest sacrifice of all is the sacrifice of self. This is what God wants from each of us. Jesus says in John 15:13, greater love has no one than to lay down his life or his friends. Sacrifice is the very essence of godly love. Sacrifice is what godly beings do. That's what we are here to learn. Our discipleship requires a life of complete surrender to God's will. We did not make the journey to the kingdom for free. It literally costs us our life. Paul admonishes in Ephesians 5:12, therefore be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. Are we bringing God an abundance of our daily burnt offerings and complete devotion and service through prayer and praise? Are we loving God with all our heart? Or are we holding something back that we think we know best about? To be an acceptable whole burnt offering, we must be ready and willing to sacrifice everything of value to serve him. Jesus tells us, no one can serve two masters. He tells us in Luke 14:26, that our loyalty to Christ must surpass all earthly ties, even to family and to self. Now we are probably not guilty of taking a census to prepare for war, at least I hope not. But where have we pursued our will? Our solutions. Where have we had self-reliance over God? Have we prayed and actually wanted God's will to be done in all aspects of our life? Think about that. Have we prayed? And actually wanted God's will to be done in all aspects of our life, thereby sacrificing what we really want. As we put everything into his hands in complete faith and trust. Tying into brother Clyde's message, do we question what good could possibly come from our suffering? Or the suffering and perhaps even death of someone we love dearly. As Richard reminded, God knows what we really need. To become just like him. How about our daily grain offerings? Are we offering more daily love here at the feast than any other time of year? Are we in as we read in Deuteronomy 16:17, giving as we are able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which he has given to you? Are we giving of our time and resources? Or are we using them for ourselves and our selfish pursuits? Are we forbearing mistakes, forgiving and forgetting any wrong, sacrificing our ego to not complaint? There is always a lot we can complain about at the feast. We did not get the room we wanted. The hotel's a bit worn. The non-Sabath lunches here are not very filling. More like a fast, they do not exist. But at least the elevators are working. Now. Brethren, I've stayed at some absolutely stunning hotels as I travel for work, and I'm here to tell you, this is probably not one of them. And yet, there is no place I would rather be than right here. With you all We should be thankful for the blessing. For the blessing of God's feast site, for the place God chose to put his name. We should be thankful and rejoice for the opportunity to be here together with Him and each other. We must remember there will always be a trade-off, a sacrifice we must make for being together in a place where the majority of our family can afford it. The feast is not a time to be on our own. We're commanded, as Ronnie mentioned, for 7 days to be rejoicing, eating, sharing, and sacrificing together with God and our family. Turn with me to Philippians 2. Now here is a fun fact while you turn, you may not have known this. The New Testament word for rejoice actually shares a root with the Greek word for grace, carris. We rejoice in response to our great God's unmerited gift of sacrifice for His unmerited grace. Philippians 2:17, I have a little turning to do here. Philippians 2:17. Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. For the same reason, you also be glad and rejoice with me, Paul says. Over to Philippians 4, that's just across the page for me. Philippians 4:4 will read. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice in this repeated command to rejoice in the Lord. Our rejoicing always centers on the Lord and continues regardless of external conditions. And over just a page or so now to Collagens 124. We'll read, I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of his body, which is the church. Our sacrifices to our brethren can be downright difficult because we are surrounded by so many imperfect people, just like us, but different. Our imperfections are different. We all have different blessings. But we all have different imperfections too. And that's why it's so important to be here together. Each of us, warts and all, is a gift to each of us as we learn together. We learn together how to be like God, giving unmerited, undeserved sacrifices to each other. We must remember an acceptable offering always starts with the right underlying humble attitude. An attitude that takes the focus off the self and puts it on serving God and others. We see the warning in Isaiah, Amos, Malachi, where God outright rejected their sacrifices and offerings. They were unacceptable because of their underlying attitude of pride and their lack of mercy and love for each other. In Malachi 1:7, God actually condemns their polluted bread, their grain offerings. And likewise in Psalm 50, God calls His people and scolds them for improper grain offerings as they assumed his role as judge and spoke negatively about others. There is a very simple test regarding the sacrifice of acceptable speech. Are the words I'm speaking, bringing glory to God? Are they spoken in humility? And sacrificial love to build up the body of Christ. What fruit did my words produce? Did they edify, encourage, and build up? Or did they tear down? Far too often, Satan infects members in the body of Christ to develop a pride enabled autoimmunity. They, they see someone make a mistake and just can't hold their tongue. And thereby the body of Christ actually attacks itself. They're convinced somehow that they are doing God's favor, that it's their role. To correct others or openly speak negatively about someone else's problems. And these words are often spoken hastily in retaliation for being hurt. But these words are polluted bread. They are unacceptable offerings at God's table and the polluted bread of negative speech literally pollutes the mind of someone else about someone else. And we need to be very careful about our words at the Feast of Tabernacles. We are here to bring glory to God and to build up the body of Christ. All right, turn with me to Zephaniah 3 as we start to wind down here with the view of the future millennium that we have symbolically celebrate here at the feast. Here in Zephaniah 3, we are the daughter of Zion, the church, the future first fruits, who have just been glorified and are side by side with our Lord and Savior, King of kings, Jesus Christ. We're rejoicing, we are singing because the Lord has taken away our sins. He's imputed his righteousness on us. And now we are newly glorified into his image. Imagine how joyous that time will be. All right, picking up here, Zephaniah 3:14, sing, oh daughter of Zion, shout to Israel, be glad and rejoice with all your heart, oh daughter of Jerusalem. Verse 15, the Lord has taken away your judgments. He has cast out your enemy, the King of Israel, the Lord is in your midst. You shall see disaster, no more, skipping to verse 17 now. The Lord your God in your midst, the mighty one will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you with his love. He will rejoice over you with singing. At this joyous occasion. We're not rejoicing alone. We're not singing alone. Get that the Lord our God, the mighty God who saves will be right there with us. And he will be rejoicing over us with singing. God Himself will be rejoicing and singing with his family. And as Clyde referenced in Hebrews 12:2, Jesus gave his life enduring the painful sacrifice and shame for. The joy set before him. This is that joy. This scripture is pointing to that joy that he is looking forward to, to be right there with all of us, singing. And this is also. The joy Set before us so that we too can endure the sufferings of self-sacrifice. During this time, we will be helping God restore the people of Israel and teaching everyone about the way of God, the way of sacrifice and giving. As we help prepare them for the coming great throne judgment. But we are here now. And as David reminded, we are here as priests and we must be offering our spiritual sacrifices. Here at the feast, we are commanded to Hagog, keep a festival of rejoicing, 7 days, and hug a solemn feast of sacrifice for 7 days. God has provided us 7 days in this optimal feast environment to rejoice. As we give thanks and praise to God for His unmerited mercy and loving kindness by which he is recreating Himself in us through sacrifice. And during these 7 days, it's an optimal environment to sacrifice, to give more sacrificial love, more living burnt and grain offerings than any other time of year. Sacrifice enables rejoicing. This is our time to practice becoming like God, holding nothing back, literally consumed through our acceptable offerings. As we follow his example, given unmerited gifts of sacrifice and service, we walk in his Spirit, in the Spirit given to us through Jesus Christ's sacrifice, and thereby we are transformed from self-focused to God-focused and others focused as we produce an abundant spiritual harvest here at the Feast of Tabernacles. Thereby our sacrifices actually produce joy. Think about that. Our sacrifices to each other actually produce joy. We enable rejoicing through our daily sacrifices to each other. Through our daily living sacrifices, we gradually exchange our self-concern for God concern and others' concerns. And with each daily sacrifice, we gradually put to death our carnal nature as we become more like God and we look forward to our future joy as part of this family. As we read in Isaiah 65, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create, for behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing and our people, a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people.
WJO/aws+/
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